Final: ND 49, UH 21
By Dave Reardon
Robert Hughes scored on a 2-yard run, capping a 9-play, 87-yard drive as Notre Dame takes a 7-0 lead over Hawaii in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl with 3:07 left in the first quarter. … The Fighting Irish increase the lead to 14-0 at 10:25 of the second quarter on a 14-yard pass from Jimmy Clausen to David Grimes. … UH scores on a 10-yard pass from Greg Alexander to Aaron Bain and its 14-7 with 8:12 left in the half. … Clausen finds Golden Tate behind the UH secondary for a 69-yard TD pass and ND expands the margin back to 21-7 with 6:49 before halftime. … Clausen to Tate again for a 23-yard score with 1 second left in the half. Tate has 5 catches for 137 yards at halftime and Clausen is 18 for 21 with 300 yards. … ND picks up where it left off after intermission with Clausen throwing 18 yards to Armando Allen for his fourth TD pass at 10:50 of the third quarter. … Then a UH fumble, and Clausen-Tate again, this time for 40 yards, making the score 42-7 with 7:22 left in the third. … Hawaii comes back with a 21-yard scoring pass from Alexander to Bain and it is 42-14 with 4:25 left in the third quarter. … Armando Allen takes the ensuing kickoff 96 yards for a ND touchdown and it’s 49-14.
December 24th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Key on that boy Tate and take him out with a career ending hit…15 yard penalty or no. Send these rosary bead squeezers packing back to the snow and ice.
December 24th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
42-7 in the 3rd… what an embarrassing moment for hawaii football. Notre Dame is scoring at will on HUGE long yardage plays.
December 24th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
frings,
i feel the same way about jimmy claussen. take the 15. lol….
December 24th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Well, thanks for the HUGE embrassment on national tv, we look like we dont even care out there. Another example of being clearly outcoached and to get outcoached by this group of Notre Dame coaches is pretty damn sad. McMakin talks such a big game but doesnt have any idea what do, no adjustments at all and Ron Lee is so out of his league he needs to go NOW!! I have been a Hawaii fan for over 25 years and it always seemed that we rose to occasion (most of the time) when we were on national tv, but this is atrocious. We have again taken two steps back. This, on top of the Cincy meltdown, and I have no confidence that our coaches know what they are doing….pray it doesnt get any worse
December 24th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
What a embarassment for Uh Football on ESPN. The play calling was absolutely predictable. PASS,PASS,PASS! No running game. No back in the backfield. Number of sacks was because of this. How can you win a game if the other team knows exactly what your going to do? They’re just going to send everyone on every down. Can’t we get some coaches who know what they are doing starting from the top? I long for the days of Coach Dick Tomey. Maybe we can get him back and send McMackin back to June Jones. Also send the other coaches back to High school(the Lees). Whoever is running this UH football program please recruit and spend good money on a good coach who teaches disipline. Also get rid of that stupid dance the players do. It’s all show and pisses off the other team! I’ve been watching and listening to Uh football since the 70’s.
December 24th, 2008 at 7:09 pm
Pathetic game. What an embarrassment.
December 24th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Congratulations to Aaron Bain for giving us a few highlights during the game. You can go out your season year with a bit of pride.
The rest of the game was awful. To lose on national tv to a team that had one decent win all season (over Navy) and a mediocre season at best on our own home turf was worse than losing the Sugar Bowl, which no one expected us to win anyway.
This was a disaster. An embarrassment at best.
Frings – go find another place to play. People like you who wish the worst dont need to be around. How would you feel if someone on the ND side said to take out Veikune with a career ending hit. You are an embarrassment as well.
December 24th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
one more thing…all the fans that say UH should join the Pac10. This was just another reason why it will never happen. the WAC, with the exception of Boise State, has to be the worst conference in the NCAA, even worse that Conference USA. Sad but true.
December 24th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Yikes…I don’t know what to say…
I do know this… Ron Lee should be out after this year. Has he not proven time and again that he can’t call the plays? If they don’t get rid of him outright, he should be pushed back down to a receivers coach.
Mack needs to be jumped on a bit too. The coaches need to push the players to stay in the game. It seemed as if plays were run half speed and ND could just score or run 12-15 yards a carry. I was stunned.
Mack likely won’t get chewed on cuz he took the team to a bowl when nobody knew what to expect coming into this “transition” season. I know we can improve next year, but only if the coaching staff gets an overhaul as well.
December 24th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
disgrace, bring back the all-black uniforms, the run & shoot offense, june jones, 3-4 defense, breakout special teams, and JUNE JONES.
December 24th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
GA Warrior,
its not only the coaches, damn players need to step it up, protect the qb, make catches, create turnovers, stop the damn personnel fouls. too much to list.
I remember earlier this season GM talking about the future possibility of getting invited to the pac 10. hahahaha! we BELONG in the WAC or maybe Sun Belt. If anyones proved they deserve in in the pac 10 its Boise State.
im just so pissed right now
December 24th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
U know I truly believe that next year we are gonna have the players to do something special but the COACHING IS WHAT’S GONNA STOP THAT FROM HAPPENNING IF THIS KEEPS UP.Embarassing loss on National TV.
December 24th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
I am as disappointed as anyone about his loss. It is tough to swallow, especially since this seems to be the norm when national attention is on Hawaii. But to call for a career ending hit on an opposing player? Come on. Have some class. I could say alot of negative things about the performance that the players and coaches put on, but what’s the use. I don’t want to stew over that for too long. Really disappointing. Talk about taking a team too lightly. How do you not run the ball at all until halfway through the 2nd quarter? Come on Ron.
December 24th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Time for these rookie coaches to go, should send e-mails to Mack telling him to get rid of these idiots. Hopefully he knows what needs to be done.
December 25th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Total humiliation on national t.v.! Bottom line–poor coaching!!!! On the positive side, a big mahalo to Bain, Lane, the LBs, and Funaki for coming out ready and willing to play. The same can’t be said about Alexander, Dowling, or the coaches.
December 25th, 2008 at 9:13 am
The year began with a disappointing loss in New Orleans. The year ended with an embarrassing loss at home. But, folks, this was a rebuilding year. ESPN guys were sympathetic. A juco transfer QB with a whole set of receivers to get the offense going. It will get better next year. I just wished that Hawaii offense would have been ready for the constant up front pressure that N.D. brought to Alexander. A draw play, a screen pass, a quick slant. Whatever! Kealoha had one nice 16 yard run in the 2nd quarter. Like all Hawaii fans, I had to wonder why those plays were utilized more. It made no sense to keep passing the ball when Alexander rarely had enough time to throw. Let’s just hope that the 2009 season will be more rewarding to the fans.
December 25th, 2008 at 10:27 am
wow,
nd beat us that bad…this is a team who had beaten one team with a winnning record all seaso,to see our kids play so badly and really not with any heart makes me want to know what is going on with the coaching, a head coach is responsible for putting his team on the field ready to play and obviously we were not. we were beaten in every phase but most distressing was it came in the final game of 34 seniors who deserved better.
awful
December 25th, 2008 at 10:31 am
i ve watched hi football a long time,they loose to notre dame,everyone says fire the coaches,i will use ron lees knowledge anyday.
December 25th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Notre Dame was ready and played a great game. Claussen was deadly accurate with his passes and his o-line did a great job protecting him. If they play like this next year, they may have a chance at the national title. Not bad for a young team. Congratulations to ND.
As for UH, this was a season of rebuilding. At times they showed that they can compete with anyone and at times they were their own worst enemy. I was expecting more of a 9 and 5 season, so it was a dissappointing season. This is my assessment and things that UH must work on to improve next season.
1. Offensive line got worst after coach Cav left a couple of seasons ago. Aaron Kia called for too many personal fouls at crucial times (every game). Need a new coach and more discipline.
2. Offensive play calling was terrible throughout the year. Went too conservative too early in games with leads. Too predictable. Most of the plays in the Hawaii bowl had no running back, helping to block and run the ball. Alexander at times kept the ball too long. Throw it away rather than taking a sack. Must work of Alexander’s thowing (sidearm was terrible a times – causing interceptions and break-ups). Colt’s sidearm throwing was different and he didn’t throw that way all time time.
3. Defensive backs often gave up, thinking that the QB was going to be sacked.
4. ND screen plays killed Hawaii. Many of them were obvious.
5. Too many missed tackles.
6. Giving away too many big plays. (This includes kick-offs and punts)
7. Too many penalties. Some were uncalled for, but some were marginal. Satele’s hit was marginal, because the receiver was actually in-bounds (his right foot had stepped on the line). When you’re known to have a lot of penalties called against you, anything marginal will be called against you.
8. Too many give-aways. It’s okay to get the extra yardage, but protect the ball!!!
December 25th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
Notre Dame’s screen passes worked every time. UH’s screen or shovel passes never worked. Didn’t UH coaches plan for ND’s screen passes ? McMackin had said before the game that he had a few things different planned for ND in UH’s offense. I didn’t see anything different, so yes it was too predictable for ND’s defense. Did Syracuse have better talent than Hawaii in their secondary ?
December 25th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Probably. And Syracuse didn’t call them out en masse with a dance at a banquet.
December 25th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Hey Dave…good thing I did not respond to your request on a prediction & why…let me just say….that I would have been “dead” wrong!!!!
December 25th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
how often do we have to hear ‘rebuilding’ Do you know Boise has the youngest team in the WAC – they lost more seniors that UH and they rebuilt right into a BCS bowl game – win or lose that game they had a great season and no one was saying anything about rebuilding.
UH fans were whooping it up when we beat measly little Weber State like it was a big time win. UH plays in the WAC, meaning we play one of the worst schedules in NCAA football, some are WAC schools that are always in the bottom 10 of the 119 NCAA programs. Big deal we beat Idaho , laTech or New Mex – very big deal that we lost to USU. We play a few good schools each year, win some, lose some but we lost to Notre Dame because ND was better, better prepared and better coached.
December 25th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
after thought.
UH needs to stop worrying about their hair and the ha’a and start worrying about playing some football. Looking tough doing the ha’a and being tough on the field are two different things.
by the way Dave – Merry Christmas. Enjoy your column and blog.
December 25th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Kimo I was just telling my wife if I was coach the first thing I would tell them would be that if you want to play on my team, cut your hair and let’s concentrate on football. That’s why we are here. Not to impress the girls or learn to dance but to learn to play the game. Thanks, Dave Merry Christmas!
December 25th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
One thing I forgot to mention, let’s go back to the bows.
December 26th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Very tough to watch. The stars didn’t shine and the young guns looked lost.
It was Notre Dame?? How much more film do we need to cover these guys.
There on TV ever week.